The Sterling girls' soccer team is in the midst of one of its best seasons in the program's history as the Tigers, who have already locked up their second consecutive 3A Region 4 title, are two wins away from completing a perfect 15-0 regular season.

It's been a collective effort for this year's team. A perfect dose of high-powered offense, a stingy midfield and defense, and superb goalkeeper play from junior Sierra Benavidez.

Benavidez may not have been a name familiar to fans before this season — she moved to Sterling from Gillette, Wyo. last summer — but after the Tigers' 5-0 win over Cornerstone Christian Academy on Tuesday, it may a name that hangs on the walls of Sterling High School for awhile.

Tuesday's shutout was the Tigers' ninth this season, all nine coming with Benavidez between the posts, giving the junior the school records for shutouts in a season. Kaylee Pier held the record for seven years with six shutouts back in 2008 and Kelsie Schafer held the record for one season with eight shutouts last season for Sterling.

Benavidez's play this season has been impressive enough on its own, but it's been made more eye-opening by the fact the former forward in Gillette had never played goalie until moving to Sterling.

She spent some time at the spot during the fall indoor league and that set the stage for her to catch the eye of Sterling head coach Paula Etl come spring practice.

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"We had asked anyone who wanted to try to be goalkeeper to try, and I had heard Sierra had done a really nice job in the fall indoor league, so she tried out for it," Etl said. "She's pretty athletic, she knows soccer really well, and she's starting to talk more from the goal to help other players in their placement."

Benavidez, who boasts a minuscule .328 goals against average so far this season, was quick to credit her teammates in the role they've played in her success and transition to goalkeeper.

"I feel comfortable now (as a goalkeeper), but that has a lot to do with the rest of the team," Benavidez said. "They are the reason why we haven't allowed many goals this season. It hasn't been just me."

Benavidez has made five or more saves in nine games this season and has had three games of double-digit saves, including a season-high 13 saves in a 5-2 win against Scottsbluff on April 8 and 10 saves in the Tigers' 2-1 come from behind win against Estes Park last Saturday. All while allowing a mere four goals in 13 games.

"You can see that determination when she is in that goal that nothing is going to get past her. And on the occasional times one does get past her, she stays determined that there won't be another one, which you can't always find in kids," Etl said. "Goalkeepers take goals against them personally and that's what makes her such a good one."

Taking on and learning a new position for a new team was a small task, though, in comparison to the adversity that the junior has had to overcome in the last 18 months.

Benavidez lost her two grandparents on her mother's side within a three month span in late 2012 and January of 2013 and then, after moving to Sterling to stay with her cousin Jami Sonnenberg and her husband Kylan in June last year, Benavidez lost her grandfather on her dad's side, Orlando Benavidez, a few months later on Oct. 10.

"It's been really rough dealing with that and it's been really hard on my family," Benavidez said.

Benavidez added the loss of her grandparents, and being away from her parents, Roland and Melissa, who are working and living in Gillette, did and still does take a toll on her since moving. Her relationship with her teammates, and Jami and Kylan, though, has helped make her comfortable in her new surroundings.

"It's been different, but I feel just as much at home here as I did in Gillette and I've bonded with the team here a lot," Benavidez said.

The bond Benavidez has developed with her new teammates on this year's Tigers team has helped the typically shy, soft spoken, and incredibly humble goalkeeper break out of her shell as the new kid in an old, traditional town.

"Soccer has kind of been the fertilizer, sort of speak, in her bloom," Jami Sonnenberg said. "I think she finds herself in soccer and that's where she finds her self confidence."

Soccer has been a part of Benavidez's life she said since she was in the third grade playing club soccer in Gillette. Her aspirations are to one day be an Olympic soccer player, like Mia Hamm, who was one of her favorite players to watch growing up.

Until then, though, Benavidez said she and her teammates have a few short term goals they'd like to cross off.

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